Chidimma UCHEGBU
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, has disclosed that the results of the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) for basic education institutions in the country are almost ready for release.
Bobboyi stated this while fielding questions from newsmen during a one-day colloquium, organised by the Commission in honour of late Professor Gidado Tahir, the former executive secretary of UBEC, on Monday in Abuja.
The colloquium has its theme, “The Nigerian Child: Dynamics of Educational Opportunities.”
The executive secretary said the Commission chose the topic given the role Prof Gidado played as one of the key promoters of basic education in Nigeria.
“The whole idea is trying to see how we can address those issues within the context of the legacies that have been left behind by Gidado.
“UBEC has always been involved in this kind of project because we have always believed that you need to engage, discuss and strategize and get involved in research projects that can help you understand better those challenges and how best to address them.
“So it is a continuous process. We have always been engaging in this kind of colloquium, we have an outstanding research team and as you know, we also processing the results of the 2022 National Personnel Audit for school census as well as the assessment of learning in education, which is one of the largest in Africa that will give us an idea of whether our children are learning or not and areas which we are having difficulties.
“So we are engaging this. We have to do it in the interest of the basic education sector and its development in Nigeria.
“The results of the National Personnel Audit are almost ready. Our hope is to launch both the National Assessment of Learning as well as the personnel audit in July or thereabout,” he added.
The UBEC boss, however, stressed the need for the National Population Commission to conduct a census that will help the UBEC in carrying out its functions.
He added; “The only disappointment is on one issue that I needed to raise. You cannot get the number of out-of-school children from there for the simple fact that you need the population figures of the various age groups from the National Population Commission which has not provided this.
“The estimate they have been making is no longer relevant so that is the reason while are very desperate for a national census that can give us an idea of our accurate population,” Bobboyi said.
